John Houlder

A case of quick & correct thinking

My Dad loved skiing in the Swiss Alps and used to go for weekends to St Moritz. When the weather was good he used to fly in G-AWOE to Samedan, an aerodrome very close to St Moritz. Samedan is deep within a valley closely surrounded by high mountains and there is space for only a tight circuit.

Unfortunately the weather was often bad and the train journey he had to take rather than fly took up too much valuable skiing time. So to fix it, he installed a radar in G-AWOE together with a camera mounted to take photos of the radar screen. He took many, many photos of the radar shapes of the mountains around St Moritz to the point where he could safely recognise the the Samedan valley from above clouds and safely descend through cloud to commence his landing pattern. I always just a bit worried by this as the fault free life of the radar was only 300 hours. But he was happy.

Unfortunately, he could not cover the whole of the Swiss Alps, Anyway, one day, returning from a skiing trip and flying over 10/10th cloud, he lost an engine. I think the carburettor heating had failed. He was high and couldn’t maintain that height on one engine. So he was forced to descend through cloud into a valley he didn’t know.

Nasty, Swiss alpine valleys have only one exit and there are only two directions to fly in these valleys, say North or South. If he chose wrong, opposite to the valley exit, he would be squeezed by the rising floor and narrowing sides of the valley and, since he couldn’t climb or by that time turn round, there could be only one ending on a mountain side.

He spotted a small river or stream in the bottom of the valley and noticed a weir. The turbulent water flow downside of the weir was the solution and gave him the correct direction to fly to escape from the valley.

Great perception and a cool head, I think.

My great thanks to all who have so generously offered their condolences
Mike

Mike, I never knew your father but you have every right to be extremely proud.

My father sailed on the ‘St Margaret’ and the ‘Oregis’ which were part of the Houlder line and still recalls his time on them as the pinnacle of the time he spent in the Merchant Navy. He has nothing but praise for the line and the way it was run which was, no doubt, in no small measure due to your father’s influence.

He was greatly saddened by your father’s passing and asked that I pass on his condolences.

Sorry to hear of your fathers passing, i spent many hours at Elstree in my younger days as my father was the club secretary for a number of years. I remember seeing the Aero Commander coming and going, great sounding aircraft…………Martin

Mike I echo what Peter said. In reading the obituary what a life he lead. You must be very proud of him indeed!

Mike sorry to read of your dad’s passing. Condolences to you and your family..

My dad, yes, he was a giant. I can’t really get my head together at the moment. Thomas, thank you so much for your condolences.

Yes, David. The future of G-AWOE, his Aero Commander 680E, does worry me. John made so many mods to the aircraft to suit his own needs. I’d like it to fly again; but I’m not too hopeful. Any suggestions?
Mike

Sad to hear of John’s death.

I was the fortunate winner of the inaugural ‘John Houlder Engineering Flying Scholarship’ in 08/09. This award is presented by the University of Hertfordshire to the ‘best’ Pilot and Engineering candidate during year two of any of the Engineering courses with combined flying modules.

Well, what can I say about the man even though I never had the chance to meet him due to John being unwell at the time. He certainly lived life to the full and I would like to thank him for sponsoring the scholarship.

Thomas